


The Fall

by orphan_account



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, Awkward Romance, Awkwardness, Bickering, Crash Landing, Fluff, Huddling For Warmth, Kylux - Freeform, M/M, Stranded, Virgin Armitage Hux
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-01
Updated: 2020-02-01
Packaged: 2021-02-19 01:16:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,633
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22502899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: General Hux and Kylo Ren crash land on a planet and are obliged to spend some quality time together.
Relationships: Armitage Hux & Kylo Ren, Armitage Hux/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Armitage Hux/Kylo Ren
Comments: 2
Kudos: 106





	The Fall

Hux wiped the rain from the datapad with his coat sleeve, cursing under his breath as the ship’s maintenance scan was loaded, confirming his apprehensions that it was going to be a long night. The impact of the crash had done considerable damage to the already malfunctioning engine, and had moreover obliterated all but a quarter of their fuel supply.

As he picked about the dark cavity of the ship’s innards, Hux felt ill equipped to manage even the most basic of repairs.

“Well?” a voice spoke over him as he clambered backwards out of the engine compartment. Hux’s clothes were covered in dust and dark oil while his coat lay in a heap that had tumbled into a puddle at the feet of the Supreme Leader, who looked equally tired and forlorn.

“Have you found the spare parts that I have asked for?” Hux set down his tools and turned his eyes to the coat, snatching it up with a scowl and roughly throwing it inside the ship.

“No,” Ren replied, his voice irritable.

“Did you actually _look_?”

“I was searching the communication channels to get a signal out,” he answered, not wishing to admit that he did not entirely understand what it was that Hux had rapidly listed off for him to find.

“And?”

“We are out of range,” he said after a pause, his eyes lingering on the blood dripping from a scratch upon Hux’s ear.

“Then look for the parts like I asked, if you want to get off this planet,” Hux turned from him, taking up the flashlight and pulling himself back into the musty compartment, sliding back a tangle of singed wires.

“You forget that it is not your place to give me orders, General,” before he could go further, Kylo grabbed him by the scruff of his tunic and tossed him onto his back in the mud.

For a second Hux laid there at his feet with an expression of shock, and then of deadly fury, upon his face.

But his anger was of an impotent kind, Kylo knew, Hux was clever enough to know that he would gain little by challenging him and so was left with no choice but to grit his teeth, at least for the time being.

When he saw the man pull himself up, his back dripping with mud, Ren felt some degree of satisfaction in the other’s unwilling subservience, and yet, another side of him knew that there was baseness in venting one’s frustration upon a weaker man – even a pathetic creature such as Hux.

“Indeed it is not, Supreme Leader,” Hux said the words in a tone as if they were a kind of sarcastic insult, smirking exaggeratedly that Ren could hardly restrain himself from striking him, only he did not wish to push him too far lest he should refuse to continue whatever efforts he was making to repair the ship. He imagined Hux giving him an ultimatum, wondering if he would let them both die on the miserable planet out of mere spite.

“Do you know where we are?” asked Kylo.

“Yes,” muttered Hux.

“Arkanis. Surely it must bring back memories for you. All those long years –“

“Excuse me but I have work to do,” Hux scowled, certain that Ren was intent upon provoking him and having no intention to be the victim of whatever mind games the man hoped to entertain himself with instead of making himself useful. 

...

Annoyed that he could not count on Ren for the most simple of things, Hux returned after a time and went to search the ship himself for spare parts, feeling that he got as far as he could with examining and repairing the damage with what he had. It seemed that the particular vessel which he and Ren had taken failed standard protocol in ensuring for such provisions and he wondered why he had not inspected it himself before setting out on the mission.

Perhaps the invitation to join Ren in surveying a potential training base struck him as unusual and he had occupied his thoughts with trying to assign an ulterior motive to Kylo, everything from taking him away from his duties in favor of Pryde, to a potential assassination attempt seemed to have crossed his mind.

The hours passed and the sky began to grow dark, at which point Hux resigned himself to waiting until morning to resume his likely futile work. There was something about keeping occupied that sustain the illusion of hope, he mused, that the point at which they admitted that there was nothing left to be done but await death would mark a mental descent – a notion which he did not wish to envision, especially not in the company of Kylo Ren. They would search out civilization, or at worst, scavenge what was left of the now abandoned training base from the days of his father – a place he was loathe to revisit.

He felt the other watching him from the pod bed, the dark glass lifted allowing Kylo to sit upon it like a bench. Hux pulled off his soggy boots and set them down beside the door, locking it against the night wind.

It closed shut with a hiss, leaving them with an unpleasant silence save for the sound of the heating.

“We should turn that off,” Hux realized, feeling his anger rise again at the thought that Kylo was sitting there in comfort while he was out in the freezing rain practically soaked to the bone – all the while their valiant leader was wasting what precious fuel they had left.

“The temperature will continue to fall during the night”

“Yes,” Hux muttered dismissively, activating the control panel and searching for a way to override the safety features to turn off as many unnecessary systems as possible. 

“You will get hypothermia,” Ren looked down at the dark mask which he held in his lap.

“Where did you find this ship? Somehow the outer shell is fine, sleek even, yet inside it is like a pile of trash pieced together,” the cold and hunger were not conducive to his temper as he continued to fight against the ship’s controls, which flashed red at each ‘unauthorized procedure’.

“Leave it,” Kylo ordered, biting back an insult that occurred to him at the other’s remark. “It is inevitable that it malfunctioned given its state, I would think it is more of a surprise that it made it this far”

“I would think it was a set up”

“Perhaps it was,” said Ren with jarring indifference. “I said, leave it”

Hux pretended not to hear him.

“Do you wish to be locked out of the system completely,” Ren got up and went to the control panel, pulling Hux away by the shoulder so that he nearly stumbled backwards. Quickly entering a series of codes, he set it into emergency mode.

The ship made a sound as if it were exhaling and then went completely silent. The lights were extinguished except for a few red fluorescent bars about the exit and the controls. Hux felt as if the chamber had suddenly gotten much colder, although surely this was just his perception, becoming aware of the goosebumps which covered his skin.

“Go and take off your clothes,” he heard the other’s familiar voice, his figure outlined in the dim light. Hux’s lip twitched as if he was about to make some retort but in the end decided against it.

He peeled off the drenched uniform, starting with his socks and his tunic, then his pants which he laid out upon the floor like there was some chance that they might dry by morning.

Luckily his underclothing was only somewhat damp. He did what he could to get himself cleaned up before calling it a night. In the eerie red glow he made his way towards the pod bed, folding his arms close to his chest, eager to wrap himself in blankets from the bitter cold.

Suddenly, Hux cursed as he stepped upon something sharp on the floor, a small fragment of glass digging into the bare sole of his foot. Staggering forward, he manoeuvred himself onto the side of the mattress and looked at Ren, who watched in silence from his bed, clearly unable or unwilling to try and sleep. His broad shoulders gave the man a brutish appearance that seemed more unnerving than usual to Hux as he felt the other’s eyes upon him.

“Will you get me a flashlight?” said Hux.

Kylo did not answer, throwing something at him which the general just barely managed to catch.

“Thank you,” he muttered, switching it on and pointing the light at the wound. He tried to pull out the piece of glass as carefully as he could manage, then wrapping it in a handkerchief. It was an unpleasant night to say the least and he struggled to push out of his mind what awaited them tomorrow.

Hux turned onto his side with his back towards Kylo, curling up with the blanket up to his ears as he lay shivering, his hair wet against the pillow.

An hour or so passed and Hux was between sleep and wakefulness, something like the exhaustion of a half-drowned rat, when he felt a force reach out and press his arm causing him to turn around sharply with a gasp. The shadow of a man had loomed over him and it took him a moment to realize where he was.

“W-what do you want?” Hux sat up on the bed, his heart palpitating at the rude awakening.

“Get up”

“What is it?” he looked around, becoming somewhat frightened, unable to see much in the darkness, made worse by the red light which seemed to signal perpetual danger.

“You will sleep in my bed tonight”

Hux blinked, wondering if he misheard.

Ren did not seem be in the mood to explain, taking Hux in a tangle of blanket into his arms and dropping him unceremoniously upon his own mattress.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Hux exclaimed when he recovered himself, feeling wide awake.

Kylo approached the bed and pushed him towards the wall. Hux made room for him if only to avoid contact.

“It is obvious what I am doing,” Ren climbed under the double layer of blankets and his cloak, pulling them over himself and the other man, “and yet, you look as if I am attempting to strangle you”

“You say that as if it is something you would never even _dream_ of”

“Is that not better done while the victim is asleep?”

“I doubt that I will be sleeping much until we are off this forsaken planet. Maybe you enjoy it when they put up a fight”

“If that were so, you would be a most unsatisfactory choice”

“Perhaps you make do with what is available,” Hux closed his eyes tightly, wondering why he said that.

“You think that I am _settling_ for you?” Kylo chuckled, a smirk flashing across his lips as he wrapped an arm around Hux.

“Get off of me,” Hux tried to shove him away as he felt a leg push between his thighs.

“You are smiling, are you sure that you find my behavior unsatisfactory?” Kylo held him tightly as Hux struggled in his arms.

“I’m smiling because this is ridiculous,” Hux experienced something like nervous laughter at the strange sensation of the other’s body pressed against his. He found it difficult to look at Kylo, who was also grinning at him, clearly amused.

“Is it ridiculous that I want you fixing this ship instead of convalescing with pneumonia,” Hux felt the breath pushed out of him as Kylo pressed him tighter and then set about rubbing his arms and his sides with his rough hands.

“Is that what this is?” Hux felt peculiar conflicting feelings of desiring to draw away from the unfamiliar contact and letting Kylo do whatever it was he was doing. It certainly seemed to be working for he felt much warmer than he had laying on his own damp mattress, although he did not know how much of it he could attribute to the uncommon sort of anxiety that the other was arousing.

“What else do you think it might be Hux?” Ren rested his hand firmly upon the general’s back while the other he slid under the pillow, keeping their bodies close together. Although Kylo was fully clothed, there was something awkwardly intimate about it all that Hux felt embarrassed not to have shifted away, even if Ren would not have allowed him to do so.

“I-I don’t know, only I don’t think this is standard procedure,” Hux mumbled.

“I am surprised that you are unfamiliar with the recommended treatment for those suffering from exposure”

“That is hardly my ‘condition’, I was merely out in the rain for a few hours but that was before the temperature dropped significantly. It does not warrant – ” Hux insisted, “ah! What are you doing –“ he felt a hand slip underneath the fabric of his briefs.

“Fine,” Ren withdrew his hand with a low laugh.

“Really...what are you doing?” Hux looked at him seriously, with an almost frightened expression on his face which struck the mirth from Kylo.

“I-I don’t know,” Kylo looked away, embarrassed for the first time. He hated that Hux seemed to always want an explanation for things, when he was unprepared to give one. It was an instinct, nothing more.

“You don’t know?” Hux’s brow furrowed in disbelief.

Kylo sighed, rolling onto his back in exasperation as he passed his hands over his face.

“Are you having a joke at my expense?” he suggested, unwilling to let it go, “Because you think I am afraid of intimacy?”

“Perhaps,” Kylo muttered. 

“Or is it that you yourself are becoming a depraved...deviant, from the lack of it,” he searched for the word, “so you have decided to make use of this opportunity where no one would find us to – “

“I am not going to force myself upon you,” Kylo felt the anger rising at the other’s words, ”if that is what you are worried about”

For a while they both lay there tense with the silence until at last Kylo forced himself to speak.

“If I desired you, what then?”

“Then I suggest you consider the screening process for those willing and able to reproduce. You will be matched with a female during her time of –“

“Be quiet”

“Is it that you are indifferent to females?”

“Why do you not simply say brood mares,” Kylo sat up and gave Hux such a glare as to silence him.

“You have rather a low opinion of women”

“Both the men and the women who would resort to that”

“Is it the cold and systematic fashion of it that you find distasteful?”

Kylo did not answer.

“Other kinds of ‘unions’, if we could call them that, are punishable, as you well know. Attachments are...inconvenient for soldiers. It makes them prone to disobedience and all manner of festering weaknesses,” Hux wondered why he was saying these things, as if he were a precocious child repeating half-remembered maxims.

“And yet, human nature cannot be entirely exterminated”

“There is certain medication that you may apply for. The process is confidential and –“

“Have you...have you taken part in it?” he turned to Hux, as if to read any sign of hesitation or deception in his face.

“N-no,” Hux replied, visibly ill at ease, “I mean, not in the reproduction. Yes for the suppressants,” he admitted, hoping that would be the end of these uncomfortable questions.

“Why?”

“What do you mean why?” Hux felt taken aback by what seemed to him both naive and impertinent inquiries. This was hardly a discussion he expected to have with Kylo Ren. “I suppose because I have no interest in bringing another human being into this world, perhaps some might consider that treasonous but I’m sure the Order will manage without my genetic contribution,” he forced a bitter sardonic smile, thinking of his unimpressive figure and secret deformity. “And as for the suppressants, it is simpler that way – to go about ones work without certain distractions”

“And do they work?” Kylo looked at him searchingly, “you never feel...,” he did not quite know how to describe it, uncertain that it was a wise idea to even bring up the topic with Hux, “feel those thoughts which disgust you and make you wretched”

Hux hesitated and then took a deep breath.

“I am hardly the best person to discuss such matters with, perhaps a medic will be better able to assist you,” he wanted to leave it at that but somehow he felt a kind of pity for Ren, as though he had closed a door upon him. He did not know why that should bother him. “Alright,” he sighed, “I suppose I can tell you...they won’t _completely_ go away, those thoughts, but you will have less of them”

“I see,” Ren stared into the distance at the wall of the ship with a furrowed brow, thinking.

Hux reclined back down on the pillow. After a moment Kylo joined him, an awkward tension returning.

“What do you do when those thoughts occur to you?” he asked when he saw that the other man had closed his eyes. Somehow he did not want him to leave him alone with his thoughts, he did not know when he would have the chance again, to bring himself to talk to someone openly. Never before did he have definite confirmation that others felt the way he did, even people like Hux who seemed fervently loyal to the ideals of the First Order. It made him believe that perhaps it was not only he who was defective and abnormal. At times rumors would reach him, rumors that were forcefully suppressed, of children being born and taken away, of capable officers being demoted and sent to distant training camps for vague tenuous reasons, and then returning – like shadows of their former selves.

“I think it is time we tried to sleep,” Hux said firmly, wanting no further involvement in such conversations. He wondered how much of Kylo’s naivety was real and how much he might possibly be feigning as some kind of embarrassing plea.

“I can’t sleep,” Kylo did not hesitate to say.

“Then be quiet so that I can get at least a few hours of rest,” Hux pulled more of the blanket towards himself, leaving half of Ren’s side exposed.

“Why does it make you uncomfortable, to talk about this?” Kylo asked with blunt persistence.

“It would make anyone uncomfortable,” he said curtly.

“Have you discussed your desires with someone else before?”

“That is not an appropriate question for you to ask, Supreme Leader,” Hux hoped that the formal address would remind Kylo of his position and perhaps stir a sense of pride in him to prevent further confidences with unlikely sympathizers.

“Have you?” he insisted.

“With a medic”

“Anyone else?”

“No”

“Have you ever had feelings for someone close to you, or only for imaginary bodies?”

“What do you mean by ‘imaginary bodies’?”

“Like shadows of ideal forms, without emotions”

“I’m not sure”

“You’re lying”

“Why do you think I’m lying?”

“I can feel that you are”

“And have you no respect for the fact that each man ought to be allowed at least the privacy of his own conscience?”

“That is not a fact – and I cannot help it, sometimes when I want to know something, the force reaches out for me towards that person, their mind...”

“You mean _my_ mind, at this moment,” his fingers clutched the blanket, “it makes me wonder, this is likely not the first time you have violated my consciousness”

“No, it is not,” Kylo confessed unapologetically. “I know how you feel”

Hux opened his eyes suddenly, afraid to turn around. “Really,” he tried to appear unfazed. “And how is it that I feel?”

Hux heard the rustling of blankets and felt the shifting of the other’s body upon the mattress, then, an arm reaching out and wrapping itself around him, hands pulling away the blanket and lips kissing his neck. All the while he lay still, as if by doing so he could pretend that he did not feel these things, that they were not happening.

“May I?” a voice whispered in his ear with unusual softness, the other’s breath caressing him as lips moved down to his bare shoulder, sending a shiver through him.

Hux did not trust himself to speak, and yet, a part of him did not want Kylo to draw away – the man’s warmth engulfing his thin frame as if protecting him. 

“W-what are you going to do?” Armitage turned slightly so that they were both facing each other, wishing to see Kylo’s eyes and read his emotions if he could.

“Nothing that you do not wish for,” he said after some thought, trying to look at Hux with a gaze that he hoped showed kindness and vulnerability, “will you tell me, truly, if a part of you might want...closeness, the touch of my hands...affection,” he felt clumsy with his words, afraid of what Hux might say, and at the same time feeling that he was already at the point of no return if his wish was to pretend indifference.

Hux averted his eyes as the other man spoke, visibly unprepared for displays of sentimentality. Kylo waited, his stomach churning, feeling hope in that the general had not pushed him away or recoiled from him. He had sensed the quickening of his heartbeat.

“Yes,” Armitage said at last, “I do,” slowly, he reached out his hand and placed it upon Kylo’s chest, moving down to rest upon his waist.

“I do not want to frighten you away,” he could not keep himself from saying it, feeling as though he was holding is breath for the other’s words.

“You haven’t,” said Hux, “I am just...surprised. I-I’m pleased, that you told me this. We must keep this secret however, I hope that you know that”

“I understand,” Kylo nodded, feeling a sense of relief, as if the worst was over. “I will protect you from whatever danger might come of this. I will take the blame for it if I must”

“Please, do not think of it now,” Hux felt guilty for having tried to silence Kylo with his distant behavior, although unaccustomed to tenderness. “We should enjoy what happiness we can”

“Do you think our happiness will be short lived?”

“Inevitably. All secrets come to light in due time”

“I am glad that this one has”

“I worry that you are too naive”

“Am I so helpless as that?” Kylo felt hurt by the remark, a part of it echoing his own fears.

“Not entirely helpless,” Hux conceded, “but do you think you will be able to face the consequences and shame if your weakness was known throughout the ranks? Already there are factions who doubt your suitability as a leader. There are times when your views and methods go against the precepts upon which the Order was built. Your lack of self control --”

“That’s enough”

“I am sorry, it was not my intention to hurt you,” Hux touched his hand. “Look at me. I know how you are feeling, perhaps if you were not as you are I would be the one in need of a voice of reason. We must be careful, that is all that I mean to say.”

He buried his face in the crook of Hux’s neck and hugged him warmly, wishing not to think about the future – something that was scratching through the joy that he imagined he would feel if ever his secret feelings might be requited. He felt the other’s chest heave, cold slender hands fondling his hair.

“May I kiss you?” he heard Hux’s voice, soft and tentative.

Kylo cupped his face and pressed his lips against the other man’s in a clumsy yet passionate gesture until they parted for breath.

“I’m sorry,” Kylo murmured self-consciously.

“N-no, it’s the best kiss I have ever had”

“It is the only kiss you have ever had – isn’t it?”

“Well, that is no matter,” Hux forced a smile, his hand caressing the stubble of Kylo’s cheek.

“I will be glad to stay here with you, at least until our food supply runs out,” Kylo smiled back.

“And then what?”

“And then we will have to make do with clandestine visits in the night and secret innuendos during the day,” he teased.

“ _If_ we get off of this planet, you mean,” Hux added.

“There is a ship on autopilot that will find us here whenever you wish”

“And you are only telling me this now?” he sat up.

“Yes”

“You made me work for hours _,_ in the rain, trying to repair this ship only to...to _seduce_ me?” he looked both incredulous and outraged.

“Are you angry with me?” he smirked.

He covered his face with his hands and then started laughing. As did Kylo, as much from happiness as from how crazy it all seemed. Gently, he moved Hux’s hand away from his face and kissed him lightly upon the cheek. He was surprised to find that the other’s eyes seemed as if he would cry soon and yet he was still smiling.

“We do not have to go back” said Kylo.

“What do you mean?”

“We could make it seem that we are dead, so that they would not look for us. I do not mean now, we would need to make careful preparations so that we are not traced or suspected. There must be witnesses. A public execution – leaving no room for doubt”

“You’re mad”

“I have been thinking about it for a long time, how I might bring an end to all. I would like to live only for myself and for you. I would rather be a traitor, a depraved coward, than exist as something half human – as soldiers fighting other men’s battles. I know that you have felt it too. You are tired, disillusioned. The death of Snoke, the destruction of Starkiller base, Pryde...they made you realize the worth of what you have grasped for and what you have retained for yourself. It is a feeble pittance and your devotion will be poorly rewarded. We can escape, it is possible”

Hux was afraid to confess to these thoughts, not knowing whether he was prepared for where they would lead. He wondered if Kylo had purposefully used Pryde to taunt him into feeling repulsed with his own declining position, gradually tearing away what hope and ambition remained for him within the First Order.

“I can arrange for it, when you are ready. I have found a planet where we could go,” Kylo continued.

“You aren’t seriously proposing just...just leaving like two vagabonds. Living like scavengers on --”

“And would you not rather be a scavenger than a murderer? Or do you still enjoy it, the rush of power. I know that side of you too, Hux. I have felt it also, but the happiness that I seek now is of a different nature, something that might endure even when my strength fails.”

“I will consider what you have said,” said Hux, too tried to trust himself with dodging Kylo’s interrogations into his inner thoughts.

“I do not wish to coerce you. If you would rather --”

“That is not what I said. Just give me time -- you are asking a lot of me, surely you must see that”

“How much time”

“A week,” he answered at last.

“Fine”

“May we rest now?”

Kylo took his hand and kissed it.

“Whichever path you choose, I will be beside you, Armitage”


End file.
